Booker relaunches own-brand catering portfolio with three pricing tiers

Booker is relaunching its own-brand catering portfolio with new branding and price tiers, and the first category to go live is frozen chips and fries, with 10 new products.

The Chef’s Essentials, Chef’s Menu and Chef’s Premium brands have their own identity and positioning, giving chefs and operators three clear pricing tiers and a good, better, best option.

The top tier Chef’s Premium range of frozen chips comprises Super Crispy Skin-On Fries, Super Crispy Fries and Triple Cooked Chunky Chips, created for a handmade look and feel.

Under the mid-tier Chef’s Menu, Booker is offering five products – Crispy Straight Cut Chips (10mm and 12mm), Crispy Steak Cut Chips, Crispy Julienne Fries, and Crispy Skin-On Straight Cut Chips – all identifiable with colour-coded packs, signposted chip sizes in millimetres, and transparent windows to view the product inside. The five Chef’s Menu products are lightly coated to lock in flavour and to retain heat, shape, and texture.

Booker’s Chef’s Essentials range features two entry-level products – uncoated Chunky Chips (14mm) and Straight Cut Chips (10mm) – presented in black and white checker board boxes.

All products in the new frozen chips portfolio come in 2.5kg bags as standard and can be deep fried.

Karen Poole, head of own brand and product at Booker, said: “This is an exciting evolution for us as we’re embarking on a journey to refresh, reinvigorate and reposition our own-brand ranges under our three new Chef’s brands, with a bold packaging refresh to deliver clear product differentiation and brand recognition. We have undergone a major review with a tight focus on value, choice, quality, reducing food wastage and giving chefs the tools and ingredients they need to make their menus work harder.

“We strategically decided to lead our Chef’s brand overhaul with our frozen fries and chips core proposition, improving the formulations and coatings to ensure each variant has a satisfying crunch, fluffy centre, retains its heat and stays warmer and tastier for longer – however they are served.

“Chips and fries appear on so many menus, in various formats, sizes and styles so it’s crucial that chefs and caterers have the options they need to compile their menus to the highest standards at a price point that suits. Our customers can be confident that their chips will be served as crispy and as crunchy as when they left the kitchen – whether served at the table, eaten on the go, or transported in a delivery bag.”

She adds: “This is the first in a series of range reviews and we’re working on relaunching several other key categories this year. We’re keen to remain agile as a business, meet evolving consumer demand, and work with our foodservice and hospitality customers to give them the products they need to remain competitive.”